In London

So here I am, in London, UK.

The journey took a bit more time than planned.  There were some heavy thunderstorm over Larnaca airport, so we had to stay on the ground.  Overall we spent a bit more than one hour in the airplane before the skies finally cleared enough for us to fly through.

The flight itself was pretty good.  Cyprus airways flight attendants were very nice and kept bringing us beers just when we needed them.  Plus the food was quite good – some sort of marinated chicken with rice, salad, and the usual stuff.  The only thing that could have been better – the movies.  I’ve watched “My Mom’s New Boyfriend” and “Journey to the Center of the Earth” and both of them were crap.  Better than nothing though.

Once in London, we took the tube from the airport to the center of the city and then walked a bit.  Risking to sound too grumpy, the tube navigation could have been better.  Colors and branch names are all fine, but they shouldn’t be used when splits occur – that makes it quite confusing.  Plus, anything except a straight line and a circle should be forbidden from the map.  Otherwise people have to rotate the map uncontrollably, trying to find some sense in it.  Anyway, that’s not a big issue.   The trains themselves are nice – clean, comfy (soft seats and elbow support), and technologically equipped (voice, displays, and such).

The check-in to the Hilton Olympia Hotel was fast and usual.  Surprisingly, they have a choice of smoking and non-smoking rooms.  The hotel itself is a bit dated, with oldish smells and a few details that reveal that it didn’t have a rennovation for quite a while.  Rooms are the smallest from all the hotels that I’ve seen.  But somewhat cozy.  Overall feels like a good 3 star hotel in Limassol.  But in fact it’s 4 stars.  Or so I believe.

Internet connection at the hotel is charged at extra – 15 GBP / day.  Once purchased, Ethernet connection is available in the room and credentials for wireless connection in the lobby are given.  So far I haven’t tried the wireless yet, but the Ethernte at the room passes the speed test with 3.5 Mbps up and 3.5 Mbps down.  And feels pretty fast too.  But that might be due to lower latency here in London than what I am used to in Limassol.

That’s about it for today.  I am off to bed to catch a few hours of sleep before tomorrow’s main event.

Journey to the Center of the Earth

Journey to the center of the earth

Watched “Journey to the Center of the Earth” on the plane’s tiny LCD screen, with really horrible headphones.  And wasn’t impressed at all.  Yeah, maybe I missed a whole lot of special effects, but the movie still sucked.  It felt like a really cheap attempt to recreate one of the Brendan Fraser action-adventure movies.  They’ve got Brendan, but failed at everything else.

5 out of 10

My Mom’s New Boyfriend

Watched “My Mom’s New Boyfriend” (aka “Homeland Security) on the plane.  The film does not deserve much.  It couldn’t be spoiled by tiny LCD screen with really poor image quality and the most horrible headphones that I ever plugged into my ears.  The story is simplistic and predictable.  Most of the dialogs are horrible and were only saved by the actors themselves.  There was no high or low point in the film – it was all on the same level, and that level was pretty low.  It’s a pity to see both Antonio Banderas and Meg Ryan in a film like this.

5 out of 10.

PHP UK Conference 2009, here we come!

All the stars have aligned properly for yet another conference visit.  This time I am going with two colleagues to London, UK.  We are attending PHP UK Conference 2009.  It’s my first visit to UK, and I wont’ have much time around, but if you have any suggestions on what to see, where to go, or if you want to meet for beer, let me know.  We are arriving today around 21:00 and flying back early Sunday morning.

Tweets, blog posts, and pictures are coming soon.

House M.D.

House M.D.

It’s my second week now of being hooked to “House M.D.” series.

Yes, I’ve been warned a few times that it is very addictive, and yet I decided to watch a couple of episodes.  Every day now I am staying late and waking up early just to see yet another episode.   The surprising thing is that I tought I’d get bored of it pretty soon – stories in every episode are very similar, characters behave in the same way, and jokes follow the same pattern.  However there is something slightly different about every episode that makes me want to see the next one.

So far, I am up to episode 11 of the 3rd season.  First season was very introductory and fun, except for that episode where Dr.House explains what happened his leg.  That episode alone was an excellent movie in itself, even if just 45 minutes long.  Second season was a bit more boring.  Third season is way more exciting, with this whole cop drama.

Also, I am sort of glad that I have the Russian version of the series.  I can hear how bad the translation is and that it misses quite a bit, but listening to all that terminology in English would really bore me to death.  I can’t undertand that stuff in Russian, but at least I can somewhat guess of the whereabouts.

Anyway, be warned that the series are very addictive and if you get hooked, you’ll spend a lot of time watching it – 6 seasons x 24 episodes x 45 minutes per episode adds up to a lot of time.  But if it happens that you try it and like it, you’ll have quite a bit to enjoy.  Make up your own mind.